Vehicles, such as automobiles, include body structures to absorb energy during a vehicle impact, for example, a vehicle-to-vehicle impact. During the vehicle impact, an occupant of the vehicle may become displaced and collide with one or more interior components of the vehicle creating an impact force. For example, during a side impact of the vehicle, the occupant may be forced toward an adjacent door. In this situation, the occupant may impact the armrest of the door.
When the occupant impacts the door during a vehicle impact, a pelvis of the occupant may absorb energy if the impact is localized to a pelvic area. However, if the impact occurs above the pelvis, the pelvis may absorb little or no energy and the impact may, instead, be disadvantageously absorbed by a side of the occupant, e.g., a rib cage.
The design of the door and/or other body structure are subject to several logistical constraints, such as packaging constraints, manufacturing constraints, vehicle assembly constraints, cost constraints, etc. There remains an opportunity to design a vehicle door that may localize the energy to the pelvis, absorb the energy from the side of the occupant, and satisfy these logistical constraints.